Plane Tree of Hippocrates
A gift from the Greek Dodecanese island of Cos, historic birthplace of Hippocrates, the father of western medicine, the seed of the NYMC Plane Tree (platanus orientalis) comes from the Tree of Hippocrates under which Hippocrates is said to have conducted his medical classes some 25 centuries ago.
In 1960, seeds of Tree of Hippocrates were given to each medical school in the U.S.; one of them being New York Medical College during the NYMC centennial celebration in 1960. It was planted outside of the main building in Manhattan at 106th Street and 5th Avenue. When the College moved to Westchester, the tree came also and to this day stands just south of the Basic Sciences Building.